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1. At home my child is physically and spiritually safe. God is welcome in our home. In our home there is no profanity, no immorality, no bullying, and no peer pressure. At home our family values and my child's self-esteem remain intact. Do you want to know what my oldest son and daughter remember most about high school? Hearing the f-word a million times every day, seeing kids smoke in front of the school (there was a designated spot for smoking!), a boy dropping his pants so that my daughter and others could see everything, condoms freely passed out to promote safe sex, smelling drugs in the locker room. I can offer other examples for middle school and elementary, but I'll just end by saying that I have yet to walk into a school where I saw evidence that my child would be as nurtured, as valued and as secure as he is at home.

2. At home I can tailor my son's education to him. I can personalize it. I can take advantage of his preferred learning style. My child…

If this little boy had his way, every school day would take place out in nature, at least when the weather is warm. He loves to be outside exploring this beautiful world we live in and that is how I came up with the name, "2 Cute Explorers". And I've been one of the explorers, learning or re-learning right beside him. For example, we studied frogs once and I learned all sorts of facts about frogs I never knew before.

After I had pulled Marcus out of public school, I gave him some adjustment time (also called deschooling). We spent a couple weeks just taking it easy and enjoying our time together. We went for nature walks, visited the library, played at the park. At home our favorite activity was curling up on the couch with storybooks. We also visited the only other homeschooling family I knew in our neighborhood, my friend who had inspired me to homeschool. She has a daughter my son's age and a younger son and Marcus enjoyed playing with them during the day.

This is the story of how our homeschooling journey began. It all began with my fourth and last child and a move from Arizona to Canada. Up until that point, my other three children had always attended the local public schools and in Peru they attended a private Catholic school, which is a story in and of itself. I will probably mention some of our experiences with traditional schooling, the good, the bad and the ugly, in later posts.

My youngest son has a late birthday so the year he was 4 turning 5-years old, he was not eligible for Kindergarten in Arizona because he was not already 5 when the school year began in September. However, the following year, when he was 5 turning 6-years old, we moved to Canada and discovered that he was suddenlytoo old for Kindergarten (hereafter referred to as only 'K') and so he was enrolled, against our better judgment, in first grade.

It was the second week of that school year when we introduced our children to their new schools. Our oldest…

This is my family. David and I have been married for 23 years. We have 2 sons and 2 daughters. 3 words that I would use to describe our family are: close, happy and strong. I was thinking about what a blessing that is, especially in the world we live in today.

Some see us as a unique family also because we move around a bit. We have lived in Utah, Washington and Arizona, also Arequipa, Peru, Lima, Peru and Ontario, Canada.

If someone were to ask me what makes us such a strong, close, happy family, I would attribute the following:
1. Our faith and beliefs. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is a Christian religion that supports and values the family unit. We believe marriage doesn't have to end at death and that families can be together forever.

2. Our time together. We spend a LOT of time together, every day. We work, play, worship, eat and even school together. We go on family outings and family vacations. Sometimes the girls treat th…

It's twenty twelve. Can you believe it? Each year seems to go by so fast! People tell me its because I am growing up. why is change and growing up always the cause? I know it is really quite simple, but sometimes I think I am just figuring that out.
I am so excited for the year! My baby sister (aka my only sister) is turning 14 in January. Old enough to go to dances! Marcus (aka Midget) is now nine and just as questioning and adventurous as ever! Me? I am doing well (in my studies and at home) and am starting to look at colleges and universities. I'm not driving (yet) which is good for both me and the road (not gonna lie, I am a bit scared of this!) and am working on three different novels at once. And none of them seem to be going anywhere soon.